Customer Reviews

Favoured Child

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

The Favored Child starts fifteen years after Wide acre left off. Julia Lacey and her cousin Richard MacAndrew are growing up together, raised by Celia. The estate of Wideacre was left in ruins years before be Beatrice Lacey, and the three live in a small cottage at the edge of the grounds. They are not popular in the village of Acre, where Beatrice Lacey's memory lives on. Beatrice's ghost also lives on in her niece, Julia. Julia has dreams in which she actually is Beatrice. In addition, the physical resemblance is extremely close.

Julia grows up with her cousin, Richard. They are betrothed, but cannot marry because, as we learned in the first book of the trilogy, they are not only cousins but brother and sister as well. However, the cousins will inherit Wideacre jointly when they come of age.

It is at the beginning of the novel that John MacAndrew comes home from India, a wealthy man. He plans to restore Wideacre to its former greatness--without the corruption. He hires a man named Ralph Megson to be the bailiff--the same man who became such a terror to Beatrice. However, his character is drawn here nore sympathetically, and he became one of my most favorite from this book. Julia's love for Wideacre grows into an obsession, and she and her mother go to Bath, where Julia will learn to become a proper lady.

It is there that she meets James Fortescue, one of the most eligible bachelors in Bath. Betrothed, Julia returns once more to Wideacre to await her upcoming wedding. But a series of tragic happenings occur, and she is powerless to stop it. Soon Julia finds herself pregnant and forced to marry her cousin. What startled me about this was that Julia never tried to do anything to stop her cousin.

It is not until it is too late that Julia sees Richard for he really is. Desperate to have whole custody over Wideacre, he makes Julia completely powerless in her own home. There are some shocking deaths in the book, especially those of two of the most liked chararacters. The character of Julia Lacey is more sympathetic than that of Beatrice--but only by a little bit. Everyone loves to hate Richard, who terrorizes everyone around him. In all, this was a spectacular book.

I can only say after reading these books that I am glad that I read "The Queen's Fool" and "The Other Bolyn Girl" first. If I hadn't, nothing could have inspired me to pick up another of this author's books. This book was marginally more enjoyable than its predecessor, "Wideacre."

Although they are beautifully written, the characters are thoroughly unlikable and unbelievable. The story lines are trite and predictable. In this trilogy, the author has seemed to forget the tales' integrity and instead gone for shock value. Most of the characters in these books just need to be slapped or put out of their misery.

If you like drama-queen stories intended to shock, I would suggest reading any book by V.C. Andrews rather than this trilogy. At least most of the characters in the V.C. Andrews books cannot do anything to improve their situations merely by standing up and being human.

I have always said that no book read is a waste of time. I am sad to say I was wrong. These books have wasted valuable time that I could have spent on something more worthwhile.

I would recommend to ANY reader two other books by this author, and those would be the aforementioned "The Queen's Fool" and "The Other Boleyn Girl." Both are great reads and worth 5 stars--more if it were possible to rate them that highly.

There were a lot of things that i found lacking in this book. Firstly i felt like The Favored child was a Wideacre reversed, in Wideacre Beatrice was evil and Harry was manipulated, here Richard is evil and Julia is manipulated. But what made Wideacre so facinating was that it was told from Beatrice's perspective, and we therefor got to see what made Beatrice be so evil, also it was facinating to read about a strong women, at a time when women had no power, and watch her control everyone around her.
We dont get this insight into Richard, because the story is told by Julia. Julia is a very weak character, and it is painfully annoying to watch her constantly manipulated by Richard, and worst of all, not realizing she's being manipulated!!! She doesnt even try to stop him as he ruins her life, she just resigns herself to her fate. I wanted to slap her! By the end of the book i felt like anyone as stupid as she was deserves what happened to her. Richard was a big let down after Beatrice. Whereas Beatrice's motives were stemmed from her obsessive love of the land, Richard is simply powerhungry and psychopathic.
I do feel that Wideacre should have been a stand alone book. If i had read this book before wideacre maybe i would have liked it, as it is i was disapointed.

It's the sign of an extraordinary writer when we find ourselves as readers so affected by the characters that we want to yell at them, slap or shake them, or cry with frustration--and Gregory is an extraordinary writer, as she demonstrates in all three of the Wideacre books. It took me two tries to finish this story; Julia's emotional journey is truly heart-breaking. This is after all the tragic second act, when things are left in a state that seems beyond repair. But her devastated world is held together by the heroic strength of Ralph, the winning charm of James Fortescue, the courage of John and Celia, and the beautiful descriptions of the setting: of plant life, city life, landscape, and the spunky, endearing residents of Acre whose fates touch us as deeply as if they were our friends. I had to finish the story simply to discover how Gregory manages to make everything seem so real. There's an emotional power to these books that seems to be missing in the later Boleyn books, but the evocative description is Gregory's trademark, and is in great evidence here.

Firstly, I would like to say that I am not a child, I simply didn't have time to sign in and I really felt compelled to write a review.

"The Favored Child" is a fascinating piece of historical fiction. Gregory, once again, gives her readers a peek at the world in which women in the early 1800's live. A world where there is utter powerlessness for a woman, even an heir to property. She also shows us the struggles of the poor and impoverished. The juxtaposition of the separate classes enables her reader to see that each class of society in this time period embodied different freedoms and restraints. Women were not citizens in their own right. Gregory does an amazing job of delving into the mind of women of this era. As women have always been reflective, Julia Lacey, the main character of this novel reflects upon her life...over and over. This, to me, rings realistically to women across the ages. I don't know a woman who doesn't lose a night's sleep thinking over the many facets included in decisions which involve risks or at times become so lost in thought that they wonder, " What am I doing in this room?" when they realize they don't remember why they came there. I also think that the love Julia shares for the people of Acre and her land is inspiring. However, her ambitious plans to give back to the people do not manifest as she is greatly limited, because Julia is a woman in her time. When you combine the EVIL antics of Julia's brother/cousin Richard with Julia's upbringing to be a lady and her love and loyalty to her mother into the scenario, the reader should not be surprised at Julia's lack of ability to bring her dreams to fruition.

This story is spun with mysterious sightings and dreams. "The Favored Child" takes its reader to life's heights and depths. Just when you feel all is right with the world, it is not as it appears to be.

Gregory is an ~aw~ inspiring writer. Her descriptions of how characters feel are magnificent. Her writing has such profundity. If you do not like drama and wonderfully fantastic writing as well as realistic endings, then you may not like her books. Here is a short quote from "The Favored Child" to give you an idea of how wonderfully she can describe her character's intensity of feeling....

"I could fill my anxiety building up to a panic as if I were in a coffin of crystal with a glass lid coming down on me. And even if I screamed aloud for help, no one would hear and no one would know that I needed aid. The fragile shell of the lie which hid me from my mama and from my Uncle John was about to tumble down about my ears, and no skill of mine would ever mend the shattered pieces. I knew the truth was coming for me in this bright field. I could not even tell which way the cracks were running, but I could hear the structure of my life creaking and beginning to shift."

Philippa Gregory is a magnificent author. I would feel confident in suggesting this book to others.

Also I would like to add that one of the customer reviews reads "Stop this woman........" Please notice that the reviewer only read 30 pages of a 615 page book.

I have never actually thrown a book across the room in frustration - and I love books, so this is drastic! Spoilers ahead - please don't read on if you haven't read the book. I managed to (somehow) get through the first book, 'Wideacre', which I disliked - whilst I adore the rest of Gregory's novels, so this was hard for me - and grit my teeth and tried to read this book, the sequel as I'd bought it and it looked more promising. It was 'marginally better' as one reader put it, than the first, but a very depressing and frustrating book indeed.

I was getting very angry and frustrated after the second half of the book - as many other readers have highlighted, Julia's consistent inability to stand up to Richard made it impossible for me to like her anymore. I quite honestly wanted to slap her to wake her up from that dreamy state she was in! Because I wanted so much for Julia to be with James - who I liked a great deal. I was so depressed after everything went wrong and she didn't marry him... ah, because I was expecting the usually very clever Ms Gregory to surprise me and have a twist at the end and say, aha! She does get her true love in the end and she and Ralph get rid of Richard and although it's not happily ever after she learns to grow a backbone and be the very first female heir to Wideacre.

The rape scene with Julia and Richard was very violent and far too detailed and I think it may be difficult to stomach for anyone who has ever been in an abusive situation like that, in fact, for anyone at all. I don't want to get into the tricky area of abortion too much, but I really did feel strongly that Julia should have gone to Ralph for help when she concieved the child with Richard. This was a child of incest and rape - and she knew in her heart there should be no heir for Wideacre - they were all simply too inbred and it needed to end somewhere for nothing was going right. Clean slate, so to speak. Yet she gives the child away - then in her final letter asks James to find the child?! What?! And I was expecting perhaps a deformed child, after all this inbreeding (I mean this child is the product of parents who are brother and sister AND grandparents who are brother and sister!!!) but she was perfect and beautiful. I was hoping the gypsies would keep her and she'd never be found again.. but alas, the Lacey madness will live on...

The perfect end to this book would have been a nice twist. Gregory could have made her very good point about inheritance rights and the lack of power women of Beatrice and Julia's era had by Richard being killed by Ralph, then Julia inheriting the land - baby Sarah is adopted out to the gypsies and never seen again and Julia either lives as a widow and runs the land or (this would have been lovely - I bet all the girls have sighed over James a little, didn't you? he was a little like the handsome romantic leads in Austen's books) James forgave her - for they had both made mistakes and Julia's was not intentional nor her fault (I was practically screaming at her that it wasn't her fault - and she gets it in the end, when it's too late!) and they marry and have 'normal' children - or perhaps none, they just learn from their mistakes and respect each other, and make a fresh start for Wideacre.

There were so many allies that Julia had - she was a sweet girl and I liked her - I wish that I could have shaken her though, I got so mad. So many people in the village offered their help - this trap she was caught in with Richard could have been avoided - ahhh... SO frustrating. I will not be reading the third book in the series. I shall go back to reading Gregory's more historic novels (A Constant Princess is one I haven't read yet and it sounds excellent). I wouldn't recommend this one.

I have become a fast fan of Philippa Gregory, starting first with The Other Boleyn Girl before beginning the Wideacre trilogy. I cannot put them down. In this second work I find myself sad for Julia Lacey but infuriated with her at the same time. I want to jump into the book and strangle her for her stupidity and weakness but then check myself on the time which her character lives. You cannot help but pity little Julia and hope that she will summon the strength of her mama/aunt Beatrice, the Wideacre witch, and break from the intolerably cruel rule of her cousin/brother/husband Richard and give him his just desserts. I cannot wait to learn how it all ends. This trilogy makes great summer reading. A MUST READ!!!

12 year old Julia Lacey is haunted by dreams of the past and premonitions of the future. All she wants is to see the town of Wideacre flourish again and put food in the mouths of the hungry.

She is named as joint heir for Wideacre, along with her cousin, Richard. Because he is the boy, he gets the education and the freedom. He indeed seems to be the favoured child. Meanwhile, Julia has to be content with becoming friends with the townfolk, learning the history of Wideacre and the Laceys and unravelling why she seems to have 'the sight'. Why she seems to have the power of her predecessor, Beatrice to make the crops grow.

I really enjoyed the return of Ralph in this sequel, and the struggle that Julia had to fight as a woman with virtually no rights in a man's world. Philippa Gregory is very talented at writing a story of nasty people with bad intentions.

Unfortunately for me in this case, I am unable to put a book down once I start it. I grabbed this book quickly in an airport bookstore, because it was a long flight and I liked "The Other Boleyn Girl". Once I was about halfway through the book and flight, I realized what a mistake it t was. A previous reviewer compared this series to V.C. Andrews, and while I didn't pollute my mind with reading either of the other books in this trilogy, I was forcibly reminded of reading "Flowers in the Attic" as a youngster by this book. Being a tiny bit familiar with English mythology, I could see the denouement coming from a hundred pages away, but thought that it would be too trite for Gregory to actually use such an obvious plot device. Use it she did.
I found this book to be misogynistic, and even worse-annoying. I was mad at myself for having read it, and mad at Gregory for writing it. I threw this book away rather than chance anyone else picking it up at a used book store or library.

I LOVED the Wideacre book - I was prepared to love this one. I enjoyed the interesting story, but I hated all the characters except Ralph and James (secondary at the most). My biggest issue with this book, however, is the glaring discrepancy that we are told on the first line of the first paragraph of the first chapter that Julia lives to be an old woman and is telling this story as an old woman far removed from these memories. We find at the end of the book *spoiler alert* and in the middle of Meridon that Julia dies soon after giving birth. At the ripe old age of - 17 or 18?
I do not like sloppy writing such as this. If this was meant figuratively - it should have been clearly stated. I read the entire book "knowing" that Julia would live long. I was frankly angry to find her killed off. "I am an old woman." That was unfair to readers.